drop off the key: boycott interesting

let's put a ban on the word "interesting."
i have been thinking lately how that word is such overused bland, inexpressive filler. today begins my new challenge to build a stronger, more compelling vocabulary. who's in?

subway grad school

for a mere $76 per month you can design your own graduate school program and create your own curriculum while passing through the sights of new york city. lets see how it works:

a current subway student, l, designed a program called "Radical Self-Education: Reading What I Want" by completing the following texts:

Transgender Warriors
That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation
On the Road
Race (Studs Terkel)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Autobiography of Sammy Davis Jr.
Color of Violence
The Rural Life
Wandering Time
My Gender Workbook
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Truth & Beauty
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide
Sula
The White Boy Shuffle
When I Was Puerto Rican
Our Word is Our Weapon
Colorlines magazine
Left Turn magazine
Adbusters
selections from The Harlem Renaissance Reader
selections from A People's History of the United States
selections from The Karl Marx Reader
Roots (in progress)
The Outsider
Life of Pi
Waiting til the Midnight Hour
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Days of War, Nights of Love
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded
Visions of Peace and Justice
Free Enterprise

a good old-fashioned vocabulary list

because its hard to boycott "interesting" without an arsenal of other words.

because some days i just cant find the words to express the ideas i am thinking/feeling/living

because sometimes my brain feels like its rotting from understimulation

because Prof/Lex and the "to be a problem" course is above my reading level

efface--obliterate, utterly surpass, eclipse, regard oneself as unimportant
ontology--dealing with the nature of being
reticence--avoidance of saying all one knows, disposition to silence, act or instance of holding back some fact
transascendence--
bifurcated--divided into two branches, forked
heraldic--ushering in, stamp of official-ness
bricolage--using various materials on hand to create something in art or literature
adynation--an unlikelihood
dross--rubbish, impurities, the stuff you cast off
dereify--deconstruct the materialization/construction of an abstraction
shibboleths--custom, doctrine, phrase distinguishing a particular class or group of people
burnished--polish by rubbing
excoriated--remove skin by abrasion, censure severely
demagogue--leader of people (negative connotation?), political agitator appealing to the basest instincts of a mob, a person, esp. an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.
agitprop--dissemination of Communist political propaganda
pastiche--medley, made up from or imitating various sources, a literary work of art composed in the style of a well-known writer
irascible--irritable, hot-tempered
ephemeral--lasting of or of use for only a short time, transitory
allegory--a story in which the meaning or message is represented symbolically
verisimilitude--the appearance or semblance of being true or real, a statement that seems true
invective--strongly attacking words, abusive rhetoric
lithograph--print made from etched plates and ink

drop off the key

Saturday, September 8, 2007

boycott interesting

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subway grad school

a good old-fashioned vocabulary list

who, may i ask, is speaking?

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